Top city donors include WalMart, GOP

Self-funded mayoral candidate and government employee union also give

The biggest donations to San Diego city elections in the past six years have come from a government employee union, the Republican Party, Wal-Mart Stores and businessman Steve Francis.

The donations, compiled in a new U-T Watchdog database, show the City Council's new limits on political party contributions to local campaigns will only limit some of the biggest money in the system.

The largest single contribution was from Francis, $575,000 to his self-funded mayoral campaign in 2008, though he gave millions to the failed effort.

Next was the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, which gave $400,000 to a committee supporting Bob Filner's successful mayoral campaign last year, followed by the GOP contribution of $300,000 to Filner's rival, then-Councilman Carl DeMaio.

Wal-Mart was the next big donor, with $250,000 given to a successful 2010 effort to undo a city ordinance limiting big-box stores.

The City Council has approved contribution limits for political parties of $10,000 for council and $20,000 for citywide offices of mayor and city attorney. The limits would not affect union contributions, business contributions or self-funded candidates like Francis.

The Watchdog’s database includes $40 million of political spending.

Readers can use it to search by candidate, contributor or employer of contributor, or see which zip codes had the most influence in certain elections -- or to see who the neighbors have been supporting.

The data show outside influence, like more than $1.2 million from zip code 72716 in Bentonville, Ark., and $125,000 from zip code 10001, in New York City.

The Arkansas money came from Wal-Mart, much of it during the big-boxdebate. The purveyor of low prices also put five-figure cash into initiatives to put most new city workers in a 401(k)-style retirement plan, passed last year, and make permanent the city’s strong-mayor form of government, passed in 2010.

The New Yorkmoney came from the Unite Here Tip State & Local Fund, a pro-union group, and flowed to two committees supporting Filner.

The database includes itemized contributions since 2007 to city candidates that raised or spent at least $10,000. It does not show independent expenditures — for example, $20,000 spent by a political action committee on a mailer to support a candidate without giving the money to her directly — or donations made in a reporting period in which the candidate had not yet raised $10,000.